Useful Searches

By the hands of the Gods, you have been plucked from your time and from your world, dropped into the box.
Only the box is a world of its own.

We are a mass crossover based on the concept of Pandora's Box. Characters from nearly any fandom can be played here. Because of the endless character possibilities, we are canon only here at Pandora. Take a peek at our rules and plot information before starting your new life in Pandora.

a surprise to be sure, but a welcome one

No one could have guessed she'd ever be this gung-ho over agriculture. Over how to run a farm while being sustainable and somehow still environmentally friendly and a no-kill zone for the animals. The latter was pretty much a given, considering Kal, considering her own squeamish stance on livestock. But! Wanda had a plan, and the plan was being executed even as she took her first impromptu visit to Horizon seeking last minute inspiration and a morale pick-me-up on the whole ordeal.

The grizzled chocobo farmer had left her with a hefty bucket of... he called them greens before setting out for some unexpected business. "Look after them for an hour or two," he'd said, patting her on the back before he went. "You'll be fine, kid."

Okay. An hour or two. Nothing could go wrong in an hour or two. Except from past experience she was well aware that everything could go wrong in an hour or two, but that surely wasn't to be the case on this sweet little farm tucked away in one of Pandora's safest bastions of nature with friendly chicken-like critters kweh-ing about in the coops. Surely.

"Guess I'm taking over meal time," she said to the giant chicken with a faint raise of her brows. The farmer had said they were intelligent, but he hadn't clarified whether or not they could understand speech.

"Kweh!" said the chocobo, pointing a feathered wing expectantly at the empty bowl sitting in front of it. That probably answered that.

Lowering to a kneel, she popped open the lid of the bucket and filled the bowl with... what was probably the right amount. About mid-way, the chocobo let out another "Kweh!" in a quizzical sounding chirp. She glanced up, blinking at the bird as it cocked its head inquiringly to something, someone behind her. Following the chocobo's gaze, she looked over her shoulder.

A blank feeling of disbelief came hand in hand with the recognition. That was a face she hadn't seen in... technically never. In a future that hadn't come to pass or might not pass at all, but she knew him all the same. "King T'Challa?"

Horizon- Pandora, wasn't exactly Wakanda but it was something. The jungles, the humid rain forest reminded T'Challa of the rural beauty of his homeland, the way it sprawled out among the land and made it one. This land however, missed one important thing beneath its soil - vibranium. The king couldn't do much without that but then he mustn't have been the only one like that in this land. And sure enough... he had met more than a few wandering souls around. The natives within the confines of the somewhat developed settlement had been kind enough, but they still weren't the people he knew and loved, the people he was supposed to be protecting now.

People he was painfully aware he was failing.

So the king sometimes needed moments to himself so he could mull over them, and today was that day for him. He calmed himself, allowed himself to walk freely as he had his hands clasped behind his back comfortably, his broad shoulders pushed back whilst his sandals pressed softly where he walked. His simple black robes swayed slightly with each movement, making T'Challa look more like he was a spirit pass through the place than the actual king he was in reality, the one piece of colour being that of his silver necklace that rested just above his loose shirt, the embellishments on the scarf resting over that the colours of Africa with its earthy reds, greens and glorious golds.

He was a part of his home still, even if his home was long gone.

But it was only maybe an hour into his walk before he had come across someone all too familiar. A young woman ahead of him, crouched and busy with one of the odd creatures T'Challa had come to know the name of since his arrival. She seemed to be feeding it, and whilst her back was still to him, the king could recognise who it was, resulting in him giving another warm smile in response, even if this one was a little sombre and on the tired side of things."Miss Maximoff. It has been a while. Pandora has brought you here too then, I see."

There was a hint of sadness at that, for he wondered how long the woman had been here too and how she must have missed the Avengers - if she was even from the same part of history he was. He was grateful she even knew him, so perhaps their timelines weren't all that far from each other int he end. T'Challa pointedly peered to the bowl in front of Wanda, raising an eyebrow before a more playful twitch pulled at his lips whilst he spoke up."If I'm not disturbing your meal time... perhaps you would like to join me for a walk?" T'Challa gave a broad, sweeping motion of his hand as he gestured to the path he had been walking along, now waiting on Wanda's choice as he gazed down at her quietly.

Her first significant 'memory' of T'challa had her flinging him into an airport storage container while he donned some kind of super-durable full body catsuit... Strange times. Perfectly normal times, all things considered. That he approached her without the slightest indication of tension, if just a faint melancholy, meant he had to have come from further along than that. This was the T'Challa who must have made his peace with James Barnes, and offered them refuge and amnesty in his Kingdom that was so much more than anyone could have imagined.

The details of their interactions beyond those were fuzzy around the edges, but she had a sturdy enough grasp of them to be glad to see him smiling, once the surprise of him being here faded away. Really, she didn't know how she still had it in her to be surprised by anything anymore.

"It's been two years for me," Wanda provided with a crinkle of amusement in turn. To imply that this was unfortunate for her own unexpected and specific circumstances would've been somewhat dishonest, so she left it at that. "I, uh... they'll start squawking if I make them wait. It won't take long." She cocked her head at the chocobo beginning to preen over her head. The bird warbled another noise that could have easily been interpreted as agreement. "Unless you don't mind helping me? They're very friendly."

He looked comfortable and well adjusted here, but it couldn't have been easy being separated from his people. Or was he more like the King of Latveria with that detached, scientific compartmentalization that Victor had?

Horizon also seemed like a strange choice to settle. Well, not entirely strange for the tropical appeal, but they both had to know he was accustomed to places better developed. Which then posed the question of how long he'd been here; was the King of Wakanda chilling in a desert oasis for all this time? "Have you run into any other familiar faces?" she thought to ask instead.

Two years? That was such a long time, but it was hard for him to wrap his head around in the first place considering how he felt he had heard of Wanda not that long ago back in the world... well, the world they had both come from. Man, this was going to take a while for him to get used to. T'Challa nodded though to show he had heard and understood as best he can what that must mean for the woman.

He came closer when Wanda mentioned helping her with feeding the animals, the king tugging the material of his pants over his thighs up a little as he crouched down, peering into the container in front of her."I don't mind at all." He murmured, watching how the woman would do it first before repeating the motion himself, studying the strange bird creatures before he glanced at the woman out the corner of his eyes. T'Challa got the feeling she wanted to ask him something, and it wasn't what she had said in the end.

"No- I believe you, Miss Maximoff, are the first familiar face I have come across. But I am not surprised, Horizon, from what I have learned, seems to be the less favourable of places to be settling within. But online, online I have seen a fair few familiar names popping up." The man shook his head as he remembered what it was named, rolling his eyes briefly before he finished up feeding the animals with Wanda, dusting his hands off and then clasping them behind his back once more.

"You seem to want to ask me something else, something more, Miss Maximoff. What might that be?" The king asked, T'Challa's tone inviting, not accusing, his eyes curious too as he looked at the woman quietly, head tilted just a bit as he waited curiously.

Wanda couldn't help a smile when the chocobo dipped his head, and one after another their little chirps of approval as their bowls were filled. Online? She could only imagine, save for one particularly infamous name that'd been branded onto half the internet's services. That was so typical. A few years ago, she would've regarded them with a deep... disdain. They were reminders of something she once hated beyond rational thought. Now? T'Challa's eyerolling felt more appropriate than anything. "Oh, there is so much I could be saying or asking that I don't even know where to begin," she expressed as she rose to her feet for the final time. Her head canted casually toward the path he seemed to be striding on before being intercepted with the giant chicken feeding adventure.

Unless he wanted to spend a little more time in their feathery new friends' company. That was fine too.

Either way, she started after a momentary pause, a hum of thoughtfulness as her eyes dropped briefly down to her hands, "Honestly, I was brought here during the Sokovia incident." His tone implied an invitation for full disclosure, after all. Come to think of it, she still had Ultron's core processor buried in a box in some closet where it would never again see the light of day. "A while before I ran into you at Leipzig." Well, if that could even be described as running into. In a literal sense, maybe. They were literally running at each other, which sounded more and more inappropriately hilarious the more she thought about it, but she shook her head in an effort to bite back against the oddness of the memories.

"But I still know you, thanks to a few visions. I know what you did for us, afterwards. I've seen— I'm pretty sure there's another version of you out there married to this white-haired goddess of storms who can shoot lightning bolts out of her fingertips." She gesticulated idly with her own fingertips without the actual lightning bolts, thank god. "And just now, I was thinking about... how hard it must be, to be the king that you are, and to be stuck here instead of there."

To want to know so many things that you didn't even know where to begin, yes he had been there himself before. The answers one could find, were sometimes not the easiest to bear, but then a weight was lifted in some ways, a balance was found like all things in life. But Wanda had given her own answer first, about the time she had come from and T'Challa could only nod his head slowly and once, surely enough to show he understood what she had meant. He wondered if Wanda had come from his time, that perhaps she might even resent him for not having stepped in with his father when things had happened, but it was before his time as ruler, and if things were different he was sure Wanda knew they would have stretched out their hand in a heartbeat.

She always seemed quite level-headed compared to some of the other Avengers.

T'Challa was drawn from such thoughts when the woman brought up their own meeting, his eyebrows raising as he wondered just how much someone here in Pandora had told her and how much she had found out on her own. But the King was curious about this woman Wanda spoke of, the one with lightning coming out of her fingertips and apparently a marriage? They didn't sound like the Nakia he loved but if the woman had seen it in another realm in one of her visions then who was he to question it? He'd seen his own father on an ancestral level not that long ago. He had chuckled at Wanda's wiggling fingers until she had mentioned how hard it was for T'Challa to be a King without his people around him.

His smile dropped in an instant and his eyes seemed to flood with a sea of emotions, warring and crashing down over one another as his footsteps continued to fall a little slower besides Wanda's own. T'Challa stared off to one side, his eyes glazing over as he was hit with instant memories of those he had left behind, those he had been taken from when he was supposed to returning to make an amends with the world. His Dora Milaje, his mother and Nakia- oh how he missed them all. The smiles of his people, the rolling lands, the sleek tall buildings and the smell of fresh food cooked right there on the streets as people danced and sang their troubles away. Better times he wished he could run back to.

Realising he'd come to a complete stop, T'Challa apologised and pressing his fingertips to the side of his head before giving Wanda a brief smile, his eyes clearing up as he found the willing to speak."It is true a King is nothing without his people. But I am sure Bast is with me and has some plan for me. I will find my people again, Miss Maximoff and until I can I shall be here, helping new people and old friends of course." T'Challa gestured to the woman with a friendly smile before resuming walking at a slow pace once more, seeming lighter now as he moved on from his thoughts."These visions... Are they certain things or are they vague and allow for things to change?"

When a spell of silence fell over the man, Wanda struggled to shake the sudden spike of regret and unease that they'd broached a topic too personal to be broached. Being brought here, being torn from one's home, had different effects on different people. She'd always be sensitive to that. Sometimes she wished she could do more than give time or distraction for those to help them lift themselves out of their sorrow. This time, she took to soaking in the bright Horizon sun and the air that seemed crisper than anywhere else in the box as words and steps stalled between them.

She didn't comment on the lapse, and when she heard the sound of his voice again, she had no response but a warm smile to give. Already, he was acting like more of a friend within one day of meeting her (maybe ... more days from his perspective, she didn't know) than most of the Avengers she was supposed to know so well. Thor had warmed to her and vice versa, but that'd taken the span of weeks.

"Well, nothing's set in stone. I've seen things that don't make sense no matter which angle I look at them from. People who should remember us don't, and some of those who do, remember us in different ways," she added with a gleam of a helpless good humor in her grin. That was where the alternate realities came in, the different paths and butterfly effects leading up to infinite forks in the road. There were no guarantees that she would eventually fall in love with Vision, the synthetic man made from vibranium and the mind stone or a solar gem depending on which of these alternate realities should be taken as fact. She could recall a strong sense of fascination for him from her own memory, but that was no guarantee at all. Especially not here."If you're curious, keep an eye out for an Ororo?"

As they came to a stop when walking next to one another, T'Challa had turned to face the young woman properly, his head tilting as he listened to her mention things could basically always change no matter what, and that nothing was really ever guaranteed in this life or the next. She was right, he'd walked the worlds of life and been in the ones where you rested when you died, but he hoped the same principals applied for a place as strange as Pandora too. He wasn't sure about how he felt in terms of loving anyone else than Nakia, he was smitten to say the least, and he knew in his hearts he'd wait for her as long as possible.

But the mention of someone else? Something comedic was hinted in Wanda's voice and T'Challa wondered what was so funny, what joke he must have been missing and what she knew of this Ororo instead."An Ororo? The name does not ring any bells to me, but I will be sure to keep an ear out should it ever happen." The king smiled back at Wanda as she seemed to be trying to lighten their mood, and it worked a little bit considering how he felt some of the weight on his shoulders begin to ease off a bit. The king looked from Wanda to their surroundings and sighed, nothing sad or melancholy, instead a sigh of relief as he felt freed of his duties for the smallest, guiltiest of moments.

"You must have been up to a great deal of other things here in Pandora, Miss Maximoff. I don't suppose you have the time to talk with me about more of these things? Perhaps somewhere with less strange birds and more... coffee cups and chairs?" It was T'Challa's turn to joke now, smiling warmly at the young woman once more before he motioned closer to the way they had come."I have my ship that can take us somewhere quickly. Its not far from here since I was walking, but if there's somewhere else you'd prefer to go or another travel option then tell me." He honestly couldn't wait to get into more of the stuff that Wanda knew had been happening around Pandora.

He knew already of those that seemed to be here, those who didn't hide at least, but there was surely things he didn't know of that happened beneath the surface and he'd not be happy until he got some kind of intel going. Perhaps not all of this he would obtain from Wanda, but she was friendly and although from the same world as T'Challa but a more tremulous time, she had been open and willing to help - welcoming to say the least.

She meant nothing profound by any of what she'd said. One of them was already more than enough profound for the two of them, and for once that wasn't her. That actually felt like a nice change of pace, nevermind that extraordinary royalty element. In fact she found herself weirdly at ease in T'Challa's presence -- more so than Victor's presence for fairly straightforward reasons -- despite only technically having just met him today. She couldn't explain that in a way that satisfied all points, but she knew she welcomed, without hesitation, the idea of calling him her friend.

Wanda's friends were much less of an endangered species than before, but it'd be a long, long time before she grew out of treating them with frightful care and a quiet excitement as though they were, even when they weren't always in the same space. She could hardly believe they existed at times. Maybe it was because they could fall off the face of the map at any time, so that any time she spent in their company was precious.

"You know, there's a lot about the state of the world I'm still hazy about. Earth, I mean, when you left it." Her visions were more confusing than they were helpful. In T'Challa's case, at least, they'd been helpful, but much of it was still a mess. As much as she believed what she said about futures not being set in stone, she had to admit being curious. "If you don't mind telling me a little about that in exchange, I'd be happy to!" she returned with a blithe and willing smile.

She'd leave a note to the farmer before taking off, of course, that all his birds had been fed and cared for (and in record time). Which left her with more time before the next shift, which-- well either way, a request and offer from a friendly and kind king, who was also a friend, wasn't something she intended to refuse. "I know a quiet place in Misty Hollow with excellent latte art," she mused along the way.

"I would be happy to fill in some gaps for you." Or at least he would do his best so he told himself. Following the young woman, T'Challa briefly touched at one of the kimoyo beads on his wrist, glancing briefly up to the sky as he saw his jet there, camouflaging itself and set to stay within range of him wherever they walked. Clasping his hands behind his back once more, the king nodded at Wanda's offer about latte art and a change of scenery so they could catch up with one another, piecing pieces together for each other.

He let himself think back to the last things he remembered before he was dragged to Pandora, nothing too nice unfortunately though he had brought his people peace once more."I come from... a couple of weeks after everything happened with the Accords? Barely even that. After that had been sorted I returned to Wakanda, that's where I allowed Captain Rogers to keep Barnes until my sister could help him with his... problem." He doubted Wanda wanted to know about what had happened in Wakanda with Erik, his cousin, and was instead more focused on the things that had happened with the Avengers in general.

"Captain Rogers warned me that they would come looking for Barnes but I gave my word he'd be safe. Other than that, I do not believe Rogers or Stark had spoken since those events. Ah, but you come before that didn't you?" Recalling on events even before then, T'Challa sifted through them but first decided to ask what Wanda might want to know before he went on rambling during their little walk."Has someone already told you about the Accords, Wanda?"